Thomism and liberalism are not hopeless enemies: a review of The Christian Structure of Politics: On the De Regno of Thomas Aquinas

In our day it is difficult for some, perhaps many, to recall that the West’s Cold War policy of nuclear deterrence—anchored in traditional just war moral principles of just cause, right intention, proportionality, and discrimination—helped avert war rather than increase the prospects of nuclear conflagration.

“As one might expect, for some, MacIntyre’s proposition to retire the concept of human dignity rang some alarm bells.”

“The Unbroken Thread” by Sohrab Ahmari shows us that our human capacities and loves are not and cannot be strictly contained within the horizons of philosophic liberalism.

While I am in large agreement with Shadi Hamid’s essay, I find myself a bit underwhelmed for a few reasons.

The sad and lamentable truth is that indeed this is who we are, for it was members of our own body-politic who did this, and we cannot heal if we do not confront the uncomfortable facts as they are. It was sedition.

Pope Francis calls out the language of war. He speaks against “war” as a solution. In this, he echoes many prior popes.

For Hildegard, rulers who blatantly violate the virtuous example set by Christ lose their authority to rule. Following from that, an unvirtuous ruler would necessarily fail to be a right authority that can legitimately wage war.

Van Drunen’s Politics after Christendom doesn’t convincingly defend liberalism from a biblical perspective. Readers wanting a compelling Reformed defense of ordered liberty will have to keep waiting.